E-Newsletter June 2, 2005

Released June 2, 2005

Greetings! June brings more advances for fair elections, including
strong support for instant runoff voting legislation in North Carolina
and new bills in Congress to permit states to use proportional voting,
require instant runoff voting for winner-take-all federal elections and
establish national redistricting standards. This month we spotlight
the impact of our reform proposals on young people.

The Top News

Two new bills to bring democracy to congressional
elections by requiring IRV, allowing for proportional voting, and
establishing national redistricting standards

Leaders of both major parties and influential
newspapers and civic groups back instant runoff voting pilot program in
North Carolina

City council in Davis (CA) moves toward putting choice voting on the June ballot

British Columbia and choice voting: interest
continues in province and June 7th
event in DC on citizen assembly model

Right to Vote Initiative

Spotlight: How the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age

Right to Vote Amendment now has 58 cosponsors

Minnesota considers bill to help college students vote

San Francisco explores pre-registration for high schoolers

Presidential Election Reform Program

Spotlight: The impact of the Electoral College on young voters

Status of Electoral College reform efforts in Congress

Good Reading: Documentary highlights Electoral
College, Bob Dole on the case for direct election and the
“American Plan” for primaries

Miscellaneous

Upcoming events

FairVote Reading Room

IRV America

Three is a crowd in the plurality voting system most commonly used in
the United States. Plurality elections, in which the candidate with the
most votes wins, are dysfunctional when more than two candidates seek
one office, while the traditional delayed runoff creates problems
associated with having to run two elections to get one winner. Instant
runoff voting (IRV) elects candidates who have majority support,
accommodates voters having better choices and encourages winning
candidates to reach out to more people. IRV America supports
implementation of IRV in elections across America.

Spotlight: Instant Runoff Voting’s Popularity Among Students

Driven by the hard work of dozens of students and youth activists
across the United States, IRV has made impressive inroads into colleges
and universities. Currently, dozens of universities use IRV as a fairer
way to elect their student government. Clark University, Dartmouth
College, Lewis and Clark College, University of Oklahoma, and Portland
State University are among the schools that adopted instant runoff
voting this academic year. When IRV is put to a vote, students nearly
always pass it by landslide margins, and reaction to use of the system
has been overwhelmingly positive.

FairVote believes in the long-term need for reforms to increase
inclusiveness in the democratic process. Students and young people
follow naturally as a group that would benefit from reforms aimed at
bringing in those who have been traditionally excluded from this
process. Fair elections systems such as instant runoff voting and
choice voting are especially suited to student government elections
because of the diverse voting population and the high possibility for
three or more candidates. As the nation’s leading advocate of these
reforms, FairVote strives to improve student government elections for
all students.

Voter Choice Act Would Require IRV for Federal Elections

On May 26, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Georgia’s only
Congresswomen, introduced the Voter Choice Act (HB 2690). The bill
features a requirement that starting in 2008, all federal elections to
elect a single winner would use instant runoff voting. It also would
assist states with the costs of implementing IRV. See more on the bill
in the Proportional Voting program below and at: http://thomas.loc.gov/

IRV Bill Passes N.C. House and Draws Editorial Support

North Carolina cities and counties could use instant runoff voting
(IRV) as soon as this fall. On May 18 a bill introduced by Rep. Paul
Luebke received bipartisan approval in the North Carolina house by a
vote of 79-32. Under Rep. Luebke’s proposal, the State Board of
Elections would work with up to ten counties interested in
participating in the project for city elections this fall and county
elections in 2006.

The effort was boosted by a FairVote project funded by the Z. Smith
Reynolds Foundation that highlighted how IRV would have avoided a
statewide runoff in 2004 that generated only 3% voter turnout, yet cost
more than $3 million of taxpayer funds. A growing number of North
Carolinians recognize that IRV could increase voter turnout, reduce the
costs of elections and ensure more broadly supported winners. The bill
is now headed to the state senate and has received a surge of editorial
attention, including backing by the Wilmington Star-News and theAsheville Citizens-Times. Democracy North Carolina’s Adam Sotak wrote
strong commentaries in support of the bill in the Raleigh News and
Observer and Winston-Salem Journal. Please see the following:

AccuPoll Leads Companies in Preparing for IRV Elections

AccuPoll, a California-based election equipment vendor gained federal
certification in May for its voting equipment, which is ready to run
ranked voting elections and has a voter verified paper audit trail.
FairVote applauds AccuPoll for taking this initiative and calls on
other companies to follow its lead. We were encouraged to see citizen
activism lead Diebold (the nation’s second largest election equipment
vendor) to cut in half its estimate for the costs of implementing IRV
in Alameda County (CA), where at least three cities are poised to adopt
it. We also hope that ES&S (the nation’s largest voting vendor)
will incorporate IRV capacity into new machines in the wake of its
successful management of San Francisco’s IRV elections.

San Francisco's successful IRV election -- FairVote
California (a project of FairVote) has produced a one-page summary of
exit poll findings showing how well voters responded to the city's
initial instant runoff voting elections in 2004. The City will hold at
least one IRV election every November, including for citywide offices
in November 2005.http://archive.fairvote.org/media/irv/vendorguidelines-rcv.pdf

Proportional Voting Program

Our nation's strength flows from its willingness to innovate and
improve upon the American experiment. For decades, a critical component
of this progress has been more inclusive government through the
ingenuity of proportional voting systems. The Proportional Voting
program seeks competitive legislative elections that better represent
America’s political diversity, communities of color and women through
proportional voting systems. FairVote’s program director David Moon
([email protected]) heads this program, working closely with program
associates Mary Ryan and Rachel Williams and a team of summer interns.

Spotlight: Davis Students Export Choice Voting to City Council

In February 2003, UC-Davis students adopted choice voting for student
Senate elections and instant runoff voting for President. Students
overwhelmingly supported these voting system improvements with a 67%
mandate, in order to correct significant problems of skewed
representation in the previous winner-take-all system. LeVale Simpson,
a member of the Senate, stated, “I think choice voting will really help
diversify the Senate, and it should give Independents a better chance.”
Since its adoption choice voting indeed has been a huge success,
leading another Senator to proclaim, “The system encourages the student
or citizen to take the time to actually study the candidates so they
can properly rank them according to their preference. It also ensures
no votes are wasted, which I think is a huge improvement.”

Building on this overwhelming support for choice voting at UC-Davis, a
group of dedicated college students and recent graduates like Chris
Jerdonek have lobbied the Davis city council to consider choice voting
for local elections. In March a Governance Task Force set up by the
city government voted nearly unanimously to endorse choice voting. City
clerk and task force liaison Bette Racki told the California Aggie that
the inspiration for choice voting came from UC Davis students who took
a vested interest in seeing the alternative voting method
applied. "Students have come forward and have been really excited
about choice voting," Racki said. "They are frustrated with the current
election process within the city."

After further energetic efforts by backers, on May 24 the City Council
voted 5-0 to set in motion the process of putting a city charter and
choice voting referendum on the ballot for next June. If all goes as
planned, the citizens of Davis will have an opportunity to have their
say on choice voting in a ballot measure. For more information on
choice voting for Davis visit http://www.davischoicevoting.org/ and see
FairVote’s new California Reform Initiative site athttp://archive.fairvote.org/ca/

FairVote had a role in shaping two critically important bills in
Congress. The first is the Voter Choice Act (HB 2690), introduced on
May 26 by Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-Georgia). McKinney has
introduced versions of the bill in almost every Congress since 1995.
The 2005 bill would allow states to use proportional voting systems for
Congress (restoring a power states held as recently as 1967, when New
Mexico and Hawaii elected House members from multi-seat districts) and
require all federal elections to use instant runoff voting. FairVote
strongly endorses HB 2690 and applauds Congresswoman McKinney for her
leadership.

Meanwhile, on May 25, Congressman John Tanner (D - Tennessee) joined
FairVote's John Anderson and Ryan O'Donnell at a news conference to
announce the introduction of his Fairness and Independence in
Redistricting Act (HB 2642). Co-sponsored by ten House Members and
already strongly endorsed by the New York Times and Roll Call, the bill
would require state legislatures to establish independent commissions
to use politically neutral criteria in drawing district boundaries and
ensure redistricting is conducted only once every ten years. FairVote
sees the bill not only as a means to strip partisan politics from the
redistricting process, but also as a step toward fair universal
standards for elections administration in general. Please see the
following:

Penn. Task Force Suggests Study of IRV & Proportional Voting

Last year Governor Ed Rendell, created the Pennsylvania Election Reform
Task Force. The bipartisan, 13-member panel focused on a range of
issues and reforms designed to increase voter turnout and inspire
confidence on the state's electoral system. The Task Force issued its
final report to Gov. Rendell on May 12th. Among its conclusions were
the belief that instant runoff voting and proportional voting are
relevant and ought to be studied further, as they affect both voter
confidence in elections and voter turnout.

FairVote Minnesota Makes Steady Progress for Reform

FairVote Minnesota is one of the most effective state reform
organizations in the nation. Its April newsletter is full of
impressive developments, including a report that the Duluth City
Council has passed a resolution calling on the State of Minnesota to
add to its voting equipment certification standards the ability to
process ranked and cumulative ballots, that the Ramsey County Board
approved a resolution introduced by Commissioner Jan Wiessner to
support allowing local governments to use Instant Runoff Voting in
local elections and that in a period of just a few weeks, FairVote
Minnesota has six public bodies. For more, visit,http://www.fairvotemn.org/

British Columbia and Choice Voting: Interest Continues in Province and June 7th event in DC on Citizen Assembly Model

As reported in our flash update, on May 17 the Canadian province of
British Columbia held parliamentary elections and a referendum on
whether to replace its antiquated, U.S.-style plurality voting system
with the choice voting method of proportional voting. Choice voting
carried a remarkable 77 out of 79 districts, but its overall 57.4%
level of support fell shy of the 60% necessary for direct
implementation. Provincial political leaders heard the voters’ call for
reform, however, and are exploring steps that could lead to adoption of
choice voting or another proportional system. Track news at FairVote
Canada: http://www.fairvotecanada.org/

Meanwhile, the province’s model of relying on a citizens’ assembly to
place choice voting on the ballot is drawing welcome attention in the
United States. On June 7, FairVote’s Rob Richie will participate in a
Washington, D.C. forum at the New America Foundation on “Who Will Guard
the Guardians: Can the U.S. Take Lessons from a Canadian Experiment in
Democracy?” Other speakers will include New America fellows Mark
Schmitt and J. H. Snider (author of Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick,
a new book that touts the citizens’ assembly model), Cecilia Martinez
of the Reform Institute, Carolyn Lukensmeyer of America Speaks and Ken
Carty, who was the chief research officer for the British Columbia
Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform. For more, seehttp://www.newamerica.net/index.cfm?pg=event&EveID=494

FairVote Comments on New Census Turnout Data

The
U.S. Census released survey data on voter turnout in the
United States in the 2004 presidential elections. Rob Richie
provided comment on the release, noting that "voter turnout in general
was up more far more sharply in
presidential battlegrounds than in the 'spectator states' that are
ignored by the presidential campaigns." Richie also pointed out that
"the class skew in American voter turnout is of deep concern. For
example, of the 12 million American adults with less than a 9th grade
education, only 23% voted in 2004. Of the 18 million Americans with an
advanced degree, 77.5% voted - a rate more than three times greater.
Similar stark disparities were revealed by age and level of income."

Right to Vote Initiative

The right to vote and to cast a free and secret ballot is the
foundation of American democracy. Yet, in light of the last two
presidential elections, it has become all too clear that our voting
system remains flawed. The Right to Vote Initiative seeks to ensure
that the right of every U.S. citizen to vote is firmly established in
our Constitution and that our voting system is fair and equally
accessible to all Americans. It urges the government to establish laws
and procedures to protect the right to vote for all Americans and,
supports adoption of universal voter registration to ensure clean and
complete voter rolls.

Spotlight: How the 26th Amendment Lowered the Voting Age

The idea of lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 was suggested as
early as during the Civil War and was raised again during World War II,
when it was adopted in Georgia. President Eisenhower advocated
lowering the voting age in his 1954 State of the Union address, and
Kentucky adopted it shortly thereafter. However, it was not until the
Vietnam War era that the movement gained significant momentum. Unlike
previous conflicts in which 18 to 20 year olds were required to serve,
mixed public support for the war made it even more difficult to justify
a policy that required young men to fight without allowing them a
political voice. Many states began to address the issue of lowering the
voting age with varying degrees of success, prompting Congress to take
up the issue of a constitutional amendment.

Senator Jennings Randolph (D-W.Va), who had proposed a similar
amendment in the House in 1942, once again proposed an amendment. It
quickly gained the necessary two-thirds support in the Senate, but did
not have the support of Rep. Emmanuel Cellar, chair of the House
Judiciary Committee. To avoid this obstacle, Senator Edward Kennedy
(D-Ma) suggested lowering the voting age by statute instead of
amendment through the Voting Rights Act extension of 1970, which Cellar
supported. This legislation passed and was signed into law. Nevertheless,
many people remained skeptical of the constitutionality of lowering
states’ voting age through federal statute.

The Supreme Court addressed the voting age statute in Oregon v.
Mitchell. On December 21, 1970, Justice Hugo Black, writing for the 5-4
majority, ruled that Congress could set federal voter qualifications
but had no authority over state and local elections. A constitutional
amendment was in fact needed to lower the voting age nationally and
avoid dual election systems for different levels of government. Senator
Randolph reintroduced his amendment in January 1971 and by the end of
March both houses of Congress had approved it. It then went to the
states where it was ratified by the necessary two-thirds in a record 99
days. The 26th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified on July 1,
1971, extending the right to vote to citizens 18 to 20 years of age.

Right to Vote Amendment Now Has 58 Cosponsors

H.J. Res. 28,
legislation to establish a right to vote in the U.S.
Constitution to ensure protection of the citizenship right to vote in
all elections, now has 58 cosponsors including the entire Congressional
Black Caucus. FairVote and other backers are continuing to raise
awareness of electoral problems that stem from our decentralized
treatment of the right to vote. Contract Ryan Griffin, our new Right
to Vote Initiative program associate at [email protected] and see
our activist pages at http://archive.fairvote.org/index.php?page=62

Minnesota Considers Bill to Help College Students Vote

A College Student and Native American Voter Registration bill is
pending in the Minnesota Senate and House (SF 852, HF 0975). This bill
mandates that post-secondary institutions prepare a current list of
students residing in the county of and counties contiguous to the
institution. This list allows students to register to vote with only
their student identification card. This bill also expands the list of
documents accepted as proof of residency to include wireless phone
bills, residential leases and rental agreements, bank statements, tax
documents and more.

San Francisco Explores Pre-registration for High Schoolers

Ross Mirkarimi of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has introduced
Resolution 271-05 which calls for the city, county and unified school
district to “investigate the logistics…of establishing for the
pre-registration of high school students to vote in an effort to create
universal voter registration." This resolution calls for
pre-registering students as they enter their junior year. When
they turn 18, their registration would automatically become active and
they would receive a letter alerting them of their eligibility,
announcing the date of the next election, and informing them of their
responsibilities when changing addresses

Presidential Elections Reform Program

The election of the President draws more voters than any other
election. And yet our system is deeply flawed. Under the Electoral
College votes do not count equally across state lines, most states are
completely ignored during campaigns and through the current primary
schedule a handful of voters in a small number of states have control
over candidate choices year in and year out. Led by Director Chris
Pearson and Associate Adam Johnson, the Presidential Elections Reform
program seeks to engage public debate about the limitations of our
current system and offers simple, sensible solutions to enable more
citizen participation, greater influence from individual voters and
assurance that every vote counts equally.

Spotlight: The Impact of the Electoral College on Young Voters

One of the greatest flaws of the Electoral College, which became more
obvious than ever during the 2004 election, is its tendency to force
Presidential candidates to concentrate on a small minority of states
that happen to be competitive, effectively ignoring wide swaths of the
country. The Electoral College makes voting significantly more
attractive in battleground states than in non-battleground, “spectator”
states. Battleground residents go to the polls in greater numbers than
citizens of less competitive states. This trend is even more
exaggerated with respect to the nation’s youth, given that resources
for voter registration and mobilization efforts boosting new voters are
overwhelmingly targeted to the battleground states.

For
example, the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and
Engagement reports that in 2000 a slim majority (51%) of young voters
(age 18-29)
turned out in battleground states, while only 38% of young voters in
the rest of the country bothered to cast a vote for the leader of the
free world. Overall, turnout of young voters was 42% as compared to the
nationwide turnout of 50%.

In the 2004 election, we witnessed the difference in youth turnout
between battleground and spectator states deepen. 64% of young people
voted in ten battleground states and composed 19% of the electorate in
those states. While they did not quite equal the average swing state
turnout of 66%, the nation’s younger citizens understood where their
votes mattered most – and by focusing only on battlegrounds, the big
money efforts to register and mobilize voters only magnified this
disparity. In the rest of the country it was a different story, which
suggests young voters are especially frustrated with the Electoral
College system. Only 48% of 18-29 year olds voted in the forty
spectator states and the District of Columbia. This is not only 16
percentage points below the performance of youth voters in swing
states, but also far below the average turnout for voters over age 29
(59%) in spectator areas.

Millions of Americans—old and young alike, but especially young—have
turned their backs on a deeply flawed electoral system that ignores the
voices of 70% of the electorate. While understandable, this is deeply
troubling and creates a crisis of legitimacy in a democracy based on
the premise that elected leaders represent the will of the people. If
we want to pass along a vibrant and stable democracy to future
generations reforming the way we elect our President is vital.

Status of Electoral College Reform Efforts in Congress

FairVote strongly supports HJR 36, a proposed constitutional Amendment
that would establish direct Presidential elections by majority vote in
the United States. Introduced by Representative Jesse Jackson Jr.
(D-IL), the bill provides not only for direct election but also
requires a candidate to win a majority of all votes cast, a position
supported by FairVote to ensure that winners have a genuine mandate.
The bill is in the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on the
Constitution. We encourage reformers to contact their representative in
congress and encourage them to support HJR 36. See: http://www.house.gov/

On May 12th Rep Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) introduced a direct election
amendment, HJR 50. As with a number of other proposals currently
floating through Congress (HJR 8/SJR 11 and HJR 17) this bill would not
require a candidate to win a majority of the popular vote. FairVote
opposes these bills because they would enshrine plurality rules, not
majority rules, into the Constitution. We urge their backers to either
support Rep. Jackson’s HJR 36 or at least modify their bills to allow
Congress to establish by statute whether a president needs to be
elected by a majority or plurality vote.

Filmmaker Matt Kohn is the director and producer of
“Call it Democracy,” a new documentary that is getting rave reviews.
The documentary features former Indiana Senator Birch Bayh’s tale of
how close Congress came to passing a direct election constitutional
amendment. See http://www.callitdemocracy.com

Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-KS) is
one of the many American leaders who have strongly backed direct
election. Soon after his 1976 campaign for vice-president, Sen. Dole
delivered a strong call for direct election. See
http://archive.fairvote.org/index.php?page=1056

FairVote supports the American Plan (also called
the California Plan) for reforming the presidential primary schedule to
ensure that more Americans have a role in choosing the major party
nominees in presidential elections. See
http://archive.fairvote.org/index.php?page=965

Upcoming Events

FairVote will have an exhibit at the Eighth
International Women’s Policy Research Conference: When Women Gain, So
Does the World, June 19-21.

The conference focuses on the reality that investing in women’s status
globally is important not only for women themselves, but is critical to
the economic and social well-being of entire communities, institutions,
and nations. For example, improving women’s economic opportunities
promotes community health; women’s equality in the labor force leads to
better business outcomes; and advancing women’s leadership holds the
possibility to transform public policy at local, national, and global
levels.

This conference will feature discussion about advancing instant runoff
voting and other electoral reforms in Massachusetts. For more
information, visithttp://www.fairvotemass.com/

FairVote’s Rob Richie is among the speakers at a
forum on “Can the US take lessons from a Canadian experiment in
democracy?”Tuesday, June 7, 2005, 3: 30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.New America Foundation1630 Connecticut Avenue, NW, 7th Floor, Washington, D.Chttp://www.newamerica.net/index.cfm?pg=event&EveID=494

Answer to Quiz

1) There have been 157 “faithless electors,” including 71 electors who voted for a different candidate
because the designated candidate died between the election and the
meeting of the Electoral College. Many also voted the party line for
President but ignored the designated candidate for Vice President. A
few were chalked up to simple error.

2) 12 of 38 presidential elections since 1852 would have had a different
Electoral Winner winner with a shift of less than 75,000 votes . The
average vote shift needed for a shift this to happen in these 12
elections was just 28,206.

Thanks for reading!

Rob RichieExecutive Director

Ryan O'DonnellCommunications Director

FairVote is a charitable organization that relies heavily on individual
donations. We ask you to consider supporting our efforts. For more
information, please see: